A Sunbeep

With the many changes that will be coming in our family in the next few months, I've been thinking a lot about how I have a small amount of time with Ellie as the only one at home. It makes me kind of sad that she'll have to share time with her brother. Sad in a good way. I know she'll be an amazing sister, but I'm going to miss these one-on-one moments we have every day. I'm so grateful to be her mommy. She teaches me daily about what's really important and I know there are many more lessons in the years ahead. So here's some Ellie-isms that I want to always remember.

-She loves to sing! She sings along with us now and loves to fill in the words when we stop singing. Some of her favorites are Book of Mormon Stories (this is one she does with Danny that turns in to a version of the Haka towards the end), Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam (or sunbeep), Rudolph, Miss Mary Mack, Lady with the Alligator Purse, A Cow and a Pig, I Am a Child of God, and lots of others. She loves to grab our hymnbooks and sing. I love it!

-She still loves to read, but is more about arranging her books in cool rows and patterns than actually sitting through a whole book. But Christmas looks like it's shaping up to be a good moment in the book business for her, so maybe that'll change.

-She loves nursery. If we are leaving, she always asks if we're going to nursery. Thankfully we've passed the days where a no to this question brought tears and tantrums! She always gives her teachers big hugs and kisses. Such a sweet girl!

-She's way in to Disney. Princesses, Winnie the Pooh, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse crew, and a lot of movies. She can name all her princesses and sometimes quotes movies. Yep, she's all mine!

-She's got her colors down. We've been working on her ABC's (she can point out some) and her numbers (she can count to 10, but it's often something like "3,4,5,6,8,10!"). I love seeing her learn new things.

-She usually devotes a good 20 minutes a day to dancing. Spinning and doing ballet moves with her arms is what this time consists of. But she can get pretty dizzy, which has led to a few run-ins with the wall.

-Unlike either of her parents (sarcasm), she tends to want things a certain way. Examples: before eating breakfast, lunch, or dinner, she always places whatever she's playing with on the couch so it doesn't get dirty while she eats. She makes sure her princesses and books are put away before a nap or bedtime. She has to have at least 4 blankets on top of her plus 3 stuffed animals (Betsy the Giraffe, Bunny the Bunny, and Chico the Turtle) before she can fall asleep properly. 

-She has such a cute sense of humor and I'm loving seeing this side of her come out. We have some fun inside jokes and we love to make fun of Danny when he sings at dinner. Ellie always shrugs her shoulders when he starts. Pretty cute!

Anyway, I hope I can cherish these moments with my precious girl. I hope she knows how much she is loved and adored. What a gift she is to us! And now on to pictures...

She finds random benches, like on top of our plates.

First movie in the theater (that she sat through anyway). Frozen. Loved it. Ate more popcorn than Danny, which is saying something.

My little Black Friday shopper.

Nana sent her a Nemo bookmark.

Most of my dr's appointments are in the morning.
So this is how she looks when we pick up Danny.

Playing in the "snow"...in pajamas.

It was a tight squeeze in the crib that night.

New dress from Nana.

Since we're going to CA for Christmas, Santa
decided to bring Ellie's kitchen early. She loves it!

Enough said.

Ellie's turkey.

Olive Garden Pumpkin Cheesecake. Pretty sure
my face looked like this, too.

Helping with the dishes.

Ode to October

The last few weeks of October have flown by! There are so many fun things to do in Utah in the fall. I love it!

We generally try to discourage Ellie from eating others.

 We hit up Day Farms in Layton. Who can pass up a hay ride and a pumpkin for $5? Ellie loved it. She kept waving to everyone and all the pumpkins. We found some good ones to take home. Danny's weighed in at a whopping 30 pounds. Woohoo! On the way home from the farm, we found out Danny's brother, Carl, is going to serve in the Billings, Montana mission. We are so excited for him and we know he'll be a wonderful missionary!

The 30-pounder pumpkin

On the hay ride with our pumpkins. Hi pumpkins!

Danny decided his knees just weren't up to a half-marathon this year, so he chose the 5.5 mile run instead. He did really well for taking 3-4 weeks off of training. He finished 2nd in his age group and 14th overall, with a 9 minute mile average. He got a nice pumpkin medal to take home, which is now in the abyss of Ellie's toy basket. Way to go, Danny!

Nothing like running through corn.

Thanks for the pictures, Sara!

Danny got 4 tickets to Black Island Farms for running so we went with some friends and had a fun time. I've never liked corn mazes and I think I've past this notion on to Ellie. She was on the edge of her seat (well, stroller) the whole time we were trying to get through. Finally, we just used the stroller to make our own path. 

Hay!

While my family lived in North Logan, we would go to the Pumpkin Walk every year. Danny and I have gone the past 3 years, so we're hoping to keep that tradition alive. This year it was raining and cold, but we still had fun looking at what creative people can do with pumpkins

Singin' in the Rain

The Princess Bride

. 

We were able to carve our pumpkins the day before Halloween. Ellie got a kick out of it. She went around saying, "Oh, gross!" the whole time we were carving. Danny's started out as the Headless Horseman, but morphed into an ugly elephant or something. Ellie's was Mickey Mouse/Winnie the Pooh, and I kept mine pretty traditional.

And finally, the big day of Halloween arrived. Ellie was the cutest bee. She got the Trick-or-Treat business down and said it at every house. Danny's cousin had a party, so Danny and I of course waited until the last minute to get our costumes. Danny was a zombie snowboarder and I was a farm girl (mainly because it's one of the 5 shirts I fit in at the moment). We had lots of fun!

Not so sure about the zombie/daddy thing.

Buzz!

Her cute little stinger.

October was definitely good to us. Now on to November. And here's some pictures of our beautiful girl. We tried to get some nice fall pictures like last year, but there was just so much to explore. At least we tried.

You want me to what?

It is time.

So it's October...tomorrow. Summer has flown by and we had a blast. But, we'll just leave it at that and spare the time consuming task of writing from my "pregnant & challenged" mind. On to the updates...

1. Yes, that did say "pregnant & challenged." Crane Baby #2 is coming the beginning of February. This pregnancy started out as a roller coaster, but things have thankfully slowed down. Now it's more like an "It's a Small World" type ride. Around 8 weeks we had a little scare which involved blood. More blood than you want to see when you're pregnant. After an ultrasound, our doctor discovered that I had started out with twins, but one had never really started to develop and that's where the blood was coming from. The other baby was perfect. Healthy and growing. Beautiful. My doctor wanted to do another ultrasound on my next visit, so we were able to find out a little early the answer to "The Big Question"- a boy! We're thrilled and so excited to have one of each. Ellie doesn't quite understand all the hype, but last night she was snuggling with me and rubbing my belly. She'll be a wonderful big sister!

2. Guess who is potty trained? Well, that one should be obvious. Hopefully. Ellie has been successfully using the potty for 2 weeks. She is so good about telling us when she needs to go- verbally and physically. She gets so excited. It's cute. But it was definitely not a picnic. 4 days of her running around practically naked, followed by another 4 days with just panties on, finally led to the joyful day where we donned the pants and called it a success. Stickers and M&M's did it for this kid. Good job, Ellie!

Our ghetto child

And that's Betsy the Giraffe

3. Fall is here! Fall is hands-down my favorite season of all. The trees are beautiful, the air is crisp and cool, soups and delicious delicacies filled with pumpkin find their way in to our kitchen. It's just wonderful! This fall we've whipped out our decor a tad early, but we've been enjoying it. We're still pondering what Ellie will be for Halloween. We've had some super amazing meals, tried lots of new recipes, and I just found more that will be gracing us with their presence soon. Aw yes. Fall is very good to us!

4. I recently was switched from teaching the 4-5 year old class at Church to the 9-12 year old class. Yeah, big age group. The differences between these two classes is huge! But I'm learning that bribery with fruit snacks works for any age. Yesterday I taught about the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith. I told the class how a posse of angry men came and attacked Carthage Jail. One of the girls in my class said, "Oh, is that what they called them back then?" I said, "No, they still use that word today." She looked at me and said, "I think we call them homies today, not a posse." I tried so hard not to laugh, but I'm not sure I made it. Got to love those kids.

5. Danny has decided to run a half marathon with his cousin, Phil. He's been doing so well with his training. We have a nice running track close to our apartment so we've been going there a lot. Ellie and I walk, Danny runs. He got up to 6 miles, but then his knees started giving him problems. He's been icing them and bought some knee braces. Hopefully he gets back up to speed soon. Anyway, because he couldn't run this weekend, we went on a walk down the Ogden River Trail. It was beautiful!

Yeah! 20 weeks.

We found a "Leaf Bug" or a bug that looks like a leaf. Ellie wasn't quite sure how to take it.

She eventually warmed up to it.

So much for that short update. And I don't know why I did 5 random things, but oh well. Here's a couple more photo gems. Happy Monday!

Strolling around the Brigham City Temple

This kid is a sour cream fanatic. Yes, we're raising her right.